Greetings fellow ESO-ers,

I just thought I’d share a stam DK build that has been faring very well for me over the past week. With all the stamina is dead, magicka is OP doomsayers, I thought now would be a good time as any to share this build. My first build posting so I hope this goes well; (wall of text incoming)

Small Scale/Solo PvP Stam DK

Pros: Ridiculously tanky with amazing sustained DPS. You will LOOK BADASS cos 5 heavy. You can hold your own against 2 or 3 good players running meta cheese burst builds and still come out on top. Of course 1vXing against very good players is very very difficult due to how the PVP mechanics in this game are. But fear not, against 80% of the randoms in PVP this build has been faring very very well and netting me tons of AP.

Cons: Lack of mobility. If u get caught in a fight, you HAVE to fight. There is no running away with this build. LOS yes. But no getting away. Reliance on CP for sustain in heavy. Really expensive in terms of gold and won’t be able to adapt to PVE tanking/dps with simple CP swaps. No one shots or 3 hit combos possible. This build is focused on attrition. It has so much sustain and constant pressure that the idea is to run your enemies out of stam/magicka then proceed to spank them.

The gear: (5H/1M/1L) (weight is up to you but I prefer it this way)

Body: 5 piece Morkuldin (all impen), 2 piece engin guardian (whatever traits you have);
Accessories: 3 agility (robust strongly preferred.)
Weapon 1: Maelstrom 2H (any mael wep is better than none), Alternative: any 2H maul with sharpened is what I prefer. This build works just fine without a maelstrom 2H although it certainly does help ( ofcourse it needs to have reasonable traits =X )
Weapon 2: SnB set for any stam build is fine. I run with 2 piece Nights silence (sword with sharpened and shield with impen) for extra stam.
Enchants: 2H: any damage enchant is fine (I run disease), SNB: (stam recovery on sword and hakeijo on shield), Body : Head+chest+pants -> hakeijo (you can go infused instead of impen but I prefer impen), Rest: either stam or health whichever you prefer. Ideally in cyro you want to be at ard 25k health and 30k+ stam. Accessories: weapon damage/stam regen (swap these out according to your needs).


CP set-up: (165 x 3 set-up)

Red: 25 in block expertise, 25 in resistant, 50 in elemental Defender, 50 in Hardy, 10 in thick skinned, 5 in quick recovery
Blue: 100 into mighty, 30 into thamaturge (can be moved, still testing), rest into armor pen is what I use
Green: 100 into warlord, rest into mooncalf. (this build dosent dodge roll much so don’t need tumbling)
(Note: you can move some points around to get 120pt effects in the green CP constellations but I find I don’t need them)

Optimal Race choices

Redguard: clear cut choice in terms of stamina sustain (Preferred)
Imperial: I like and am currently using imperial because of the flexibility it offers and blood diamond is a pretty decent passive. + max resources is good for dk due to the way helping hands passive (5% of max stam) works. (Preferred)
Bosmer: id rather go with redguard but bosmer works too for sustain. (works..)
Khajit: Don’t really need the crit or the stealth damage but if ur on a kitty I guess it would work. (works..)

Stats with build ( fully buffed with tri stat drinks + cyro buffs) (all points in stamina) Note: Max food works too if you know how to manage resources.

Health: 25k ( with cyro buff)
Stam: 30k+
Mag: 11k
Wp damg: 3.2k
Crit: 25-30% (unimportant in this build)
Spell res: 21k
Phy res: 19K
Health/stam/magicka regen: 800+/1600/1200+

Skill set-up:

Weapon (SNB):
1. Shield assault (either morph is fine), I prefer the extra stun cos ive never noticed the shield morph do anything significant for me =(. Our primary gap closer with built in knock down, nuff said. * can be swapped with reverbating bash for heal debuff*
2. Pierce armor (ransack): Always use this in this manner : Light attack>ransack>bash, does very respectable dps and grants minor resolve. Very Very strong and the centre piece of damage for this build because it procs morkuldin with weaving.
3. Searing strike (unstable flame): 400 stamina to cast, and ticks like a beeeech, and pretty much demands a purge. Yes it gets purged but purge costs a butt load of magicka and very easy to spot. Just reapply. It costs us NOTHING to cast it lol. Helps keep up the pressure. Always use light attack>searing strike to get a chance to proc morkuldin.
4. Obsidian shield (igneous shields): well.. the shield is insignificant but what we want is the 20% bonus to healing. (block/bash cancel)
5. Vigor: Combo this right after igneous for some ridiculous healing. (block/bash cancel)

Ult: Flawless dawnbreaker/corrosive armor ( I much prefer corrosive) It’s a vastly underrated ultimate. Pop this when u have searing strike + morkuldin swords ticking on ur enemy and its gona surprise most people cos thrye always expecting a wb/fossilize into leap.

2H:
1. Stampede: Yes a 2nd gap closer but I do like the snare + bleed from mael wep and sometimes I don’t want to waste the CC by using shield assault. Essentially this is a flexi slot, you could run something else if you prefer if you don’t have a mael 2H. *you'll need this if your SnB bar is using reverb.*
2. WB: A good back up DPS skill when u turn on corrosive armor because you’ll have god mode for 10 seconds and can tank 6-10 players easily without blocking. Combo immovable pots with corrosive armor for some sick damage. Can be swapped out if you don’t like WB for other buff skills such as shuffle etc.
3. Executioner: Our execute.
4. wings/shuffle/fossilzie: I prefer flappy wings cos pretty much makes sorc useless against us.
5. Rally: Major brutality + extra heals

Ult: Dragon leap (primary set up for execute)

General combat tips

The core idea of this build is to have constant light attack weaves with searing strike uptime of close to 100% such that the morkuldin swords + searing strike dots whittle away our opponent’s resources. We have engine guardian that will also proc regenerating our resources not to mention igneous shield regenerates 5% of max stam every time it is cast. Keep up constant ransack bash spam as well to add even more pressure. We have corrosive armor to pop during those OH #@$% moments. Also its kinda funny watching people fumble around with no idea what to do when their burst combo does less than 20% of ur max health in damage lol.

Depending on the situation, you can finish them off once you notice them running out of resources with either WB>Leap or Corrosive armor + searing strike + ransack spam.

Primary sustain in this build is due to good regen + engine guardian combed with igneous + rally + vigor for primary heals as well as helping hands/battle roar passives that can pretty much reset our resources to max.

If you are playing with a competent group, you could swap in caltrops and talons while going for a more tanky annoying battlefield controller type of play. Swap in standard of might as well and replace 5 mork with 5 fasallas. Get into the middle of enemy group>talons>standard+caltrops = watch the world burn while their healers desperately try to heal with that heal debuff on them.. Its sickkkkkkkkk.

Well, that brings this guide to an end. If you managed to get through all this text thanks for taking the time!

PS: Also I work as an engineer so I really don’t have the time for posting videos etc, sorry! This write up took a considerable amount of time and effort so I really do hope this helps someone out there who has or wants to try a stam DK in small scale/ solo PvP! Don’t give up on stam because it is still, albeit not as effective, viable!